Cousins are Awesome!

Abby and I went to the zoo with my cousin Pamela's family, including Zachary who just loves Abby.   Abby loves him as well and they had a marvelous time together!  Despite the snow still lingering on the ground, it was quite warm and the perfect day for the zoo!  

Abby & Zachary decided we also needed to go to dinner afterwards, so we went to the Spaghetti Factory -- one of Abby's favorites.  Can you tell how much fun they had?

Life is pretty awesome when you have fun cousins!  

Ben Folds!

As many of you know, I am a HUGE Ben Folds fan. Have been ever since my brother loaned me a CD in the spring of 1999. I was recovering from cancer treatment at the time and something in his music healed my soul. If you could actually wear out a CD, I would have - I played it that much. Of course now I own everything Ben has done and have MANY favorites. His "The Luckiest" describes how I feel about Blair. My musical tastes have also spilled over to Abby and one of her favorite songs is "Gracie" by Ben Folds. Anyway, if you're wondering why I'm ranting about Ben Folds....it's because....HE'S COMING IN CONCERT! I don't think I've been this excited about a concert for a VERY long time and I just bought tickets to see the Police in the summer. Yeah, I'm excited about that one because they actually got back together to tour, but Ben Folds is at the TOP of my "people I'd like to see in concert" list. Yes, the top of the list. So, you can imagine my excitement when I got the following email:

Concert Quench to raise money for Care for Cambodia! Ben Folds with opening local bands Chris Merritt, Mesa Drive, and Allred. Where: SaltAir When: Wednesday, April 23rd, doors open at 7:00. As many of you probable know, Judy Vu and I are part of Rotaract, which is a local service group that works with Rotary clubs. This year we decided to have a fundraiser to raise $50,000 for Care for Cambodia, which provides the supplies and expertise to build clean water wells in the poverty stricken areas of Cambodia. To do this we have organized a concert with Ben Folds at SaltAir. General ticket sales will begin March 1 at 10:00 from SmithTix and KTix for $32.50, but before this, 101.9 The End is going to be doing a pre-sale promotion for the concert from February 27-29 where they will be selling tickets for $20.This is going to be a great concert, and because SaltAir only has a capacity of 3,400, we anticipate that it is going to sell out quickly, so make sure to get your tickets soon. See you there. -Lily Marsden, MSII

These are second-year medical students who put this together. There are so many lovely perks to what I do during the day! So, if you love Ben as much as I do, check out the information about tickets and SEE YOU THERE! :)

My Poor Tired Little Girl!

Last night on the way home from school (and after a few errands) Abby said her "eyes were tired." She had fallen asleep in the car for a few minutes, but usually when we get home, she is energetic enough to eat dinner, do homework, etc. I went upstairs to change my clothes and came downstairs to this:

She had literally fallen asleep after sitting down for a minute on the couch.  That's her Winnie the Pooh next to her, apparently asleep as well.  Maybe I should change bedtime to 6:30pm????

Dinner Impossible

If you have the Food Network and are as bored with most TV as I am right now, I have something for you to check out.  It's called "Dinner Impossible" and it's the most cool show on TV.  In fact, it's one of just a few that I actually love to watch right now.  It's on Wednesday nights at 8:00p and it JUST ROCKS.  It's a cooking show kinda blended with James Bond or something cool like that.  I always learn something new.  

Here is a link to the show's page on the Food Network website:  http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_ie.

I just love it -- thought I'd share.  :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

When I got married at age 34 I never imagined I would become so happy. At 34, I thought I was content but who knew how exciting and happy my life would get! I am SO blessed to have Blair & Abby in my life. Aren't they darling? Abby bounded out of bed before 7:00am announcing that it was "Valentimes" (that's how she says it) and then was WAY excited with her toy dog, toy cat w/ a kitten and a new Littlest Pet Shop set. Her face when I pulled that out was AWESOME!

In a life that has been full of both good AND bad Valentine's Days, I have to say that this one is pretty nice....even if we got 8 inches of snow and it took me 10 minutes to get up the driveway this morning and an HOUR to drive to work! It is amazingly beautiful, though and I wish I would have had my camera. When I passed Temple Square, the wind had started blowing the snow around and it was SPECTACULAR! I hope everyone has an AMAZING day, full of love and friendship! Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Cute Cole

I took this picture of Cole on Friday night...isn't he so cute?  He is getting so BIG and smiled almost the whole time.  We just don't get to see him enough -- we love you, Cole!  

This is my favorite picture of Abby...doing a little snow-jumping!  

And, I guess that's going to be the last picture tonight because I can't get Blogger to post anymore pictures!  Rats!  I'll try again tomorrow....

It was so fun to hang out with my parents & Mandy & Cole last night.  Cole is getting so BIG!  He was really smiley before we left, so I promise to post some really cute pictures tomorrow.

Good night, all!  

These are some cool icicles on the side of the house!

Here are Mandy & Cole, and Abby on the giant stack of snow!

Got Snow?

Seems even when you live where there is a lot of snow, there can be major differences between cities.  For instance, right now we barely have any snow at all and what we have is melting.  There IS another storm predicted for next Wednesday, but for now it's almost 45 degrees and quite warm.  My parents, on the other hand, have over four feet of snow.  Yep, you read that right -- over four feet.  The stacks of snow on either side of the driveway are at least six feet and counting.  Abby and I needed to see it for ourselves, so we went to visit last night.  Mandy & Cole joined us and we had a lovely time.  Abby particularly loved playing in the snow!  Check it out...

Here is Abby in front of one of giant stacks of snow...isn't it amazing?  

This is the apricot tree in the front yard...trunk completely buried in the snow!

Signs of Spring?

Every year for Christmas, my parents give us an amaryllis.  We've successfully grown quite a few, with the one exception of the one we lost in the trunk after the holidays were over and didn't find until we cleaned out the trunk in the spring.  This year, our amaryllis is bright red and BEAUTIFUL!  Certainly this means that spring must be coming sometime, right?